The Best Credit Scores For Informal Traders in Zimbabwe

Access to finance to the informal sector remains a huge challenge in Zimbabwe and the status quo unlikely to change in the near future. First, the numbers are too huge with the informal sector slowly becoming the Real Economy.

Economic sectors where the informal sector has taken over include the Transport Sector, Gold Deliveries, Retail, Tobacco Farming and the list is long and growing every day.

When it comes to banks lending the informal sector, the challenge becomes how when most have no assets that could be used as surety? Location in some cases is not fixed. The high risks profiles makes it difficult to extend loans to the informal sector.

The good news is that we have come up with an innovation which could be used and we provide a case study below;

In November 2024, 90 members from the forum started a crowdfunding project called Jangano Crowdfund to purchase land. All the members paid $30 for 6 months into an FBC Bank Amounds Account. The FBC Amarounds Account is tailor made for the informal sector—easy to open and run.

• Now Jangano Crowdfund has a record of performance with FBC Bank Account.
• Each member’s deposits are captured on a monthly basis—who has been depositing on time and who has been missing deadlines?
• The bank account also shows who has paid up front.

Members of Jangano Crowdfund are dotted across the country and also includes some from the diaspora such as UK, USA, SA and Mozambique.

Could this record be used as a credit score? Well its too short a period—just 6 months. But over 12 months to 36 months, performance could be used to judge how much each member is able to deposit.

The fact that someone is part of a team(First as a registered member of ZBIN) and secondly as a member of a Crowdfunding and lastly with own deposit performance record. The bank can be able to assess the financial risk of loans up to a certain amount. And the good news is that this applies to diasporans.

Message to informal sector: Yes its convenient to have cash in a cash economy—but try and open bank accounts for your crowdfunding projects. Have a performance record for the projects and individual members. This could become your credit scores in future.